Chapter 222: Gravity is Love
"?... What's going on? Why am I in this as well!?"
Shirou Emiya had been feeling a bit reluctant about Saber's departure. He was also sighing that he was, after all, not the original Shirou Emiya—he was unable to persuade, nor did he have the qualifications to persuade, Saber to let go of this responsibility.
He hadn't been lamenting for long when he suddenly saw this unfolding magic circle. It wasn't just planning to cover Saber; it intended to cover him within the magic circle as well!?
No, he hadn't made a wish to travel back to the Britain of the past, had he?
"Is it because of the Counter Force?
Or is it because, as the winner of the Holy Grail War, after Saber completes her wish, I am being judged by the Grail as someone who also needs to have this wish fulfilled?" After the initial shock, Shirou Emiya quickly reasoned in his heart.
As for whether this was a coincidence?
Shirou Emiya wouldn't think so.
In the Type-Moon world, which is filled with a Counter Force that makes various overt and covert interventions to protect the Earth or humanity, any kind of coincidence is merely the hand of the Counter Force at work.
Therefore, he absolutely must not stay within this magic circle.
With this thought flashing rapidly through his mind, Shirou Emiya didn't give the magic circle any time to activate. He projected [Pseudo-The World] directly beside him.
Whatever it was the Greater Grail's magic circle wanted to do, he had only one response for it—
"—Za Warudo!!"
Time, stop!
"Alright, now is there time to think about what is actually happening?
First, according to my previous guess, if this is the handiwork of the Counter Force, then after I solved the 'Pandora's Box' incident...
I, being capable of solving 'Pandora's Box,' naturally became a new threat to the Earth and humanity. And so, the Counter Force wants to discard the tool once its work is done... Hmph, that actually sounds very likely."
Shirou Emiya thought in his heart, not knowing what to say.
After all, when it comes to such things as discarding tools, the Counter Force really has quite a long criminal record.
For instance, to prevent all of humanity from truly becoming immortal beings of the Third Magic, the Counter Force guided Sieg, the savior, to kill Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, who had wanted to achieve peace in that way. Then, after giving Sieg too many buffs—causing him to start transforming into a Dragon kind and possessing the magic power of the Greater Grail—they used him and threw him away into the Reverse Side of the World.
Looking at the Counter Force's policy of handling things, now that they no longer faced the threat of "Pandora's Box," it was only logical for them to drive Shirou Emiya—who didn't belong to this parallel world in the first place—out of it.
"—But the problem is, I didn't intend to stay in this parallel world either?"
It was true that Shirou Emiya liked Miyu Edelfelt.
But his affection was merely the protective feeling of a brother for a sister, born only after he—who possessed memories of his previous life—realized that Miyu was the sister of the "him" from another parallel world.
Similarly, he understood that Miyu's true place belonged in this parallel world.
As Shirou Emiya possessing the body of the heroic Shirou Emiya in this parallel world, he was like a kindergarten teacher. Once Miyu had waited for her loved ones, he had no reason to go home with her or stay in this parallel world.
"Could it be that it's not just this parallel world? Are the Counter Forces of the world I originally came from also resisting my return?
So, the Counter Force of this parallel world, knowing that I cannot go back, is trying every possible way to drive me away, to prevent me from choosing to stay here after realizing I have nowhere else to go?"
Shirou Emiya thought of a certain possibility in his heart.
Don't say it—there really seemed to be such a possibility.
One second passed.
"Forget it, guessing more here won't do any good.
When Rin is prepared for the transformation and begins to use the Second Magic to send us back, if I really am rejected by the world, it will naturally prove that my guess wasn't wrong.
Unlike now, no matter how much I speculate, it's only speculation."
Thinking this far, Shirou Emiya stopped his train of thought and began to move away from the range of the magic circle.
He had always been proud of using the Stand ability of [Pseudo-The World], and since this Stand ability had never let him down, Shirou Emiya seemed to have forgotten one point.
The Stand abilities in the world of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure are bound by physics.
Although this sounds ridiculous.
For nothing else, take the ability of [Hermit Purple] to obtain information out of thin air—none of that conforms to physics.
But in Part 7 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, a new setting was indeed updated.
That is, regarding invincible Stand abilities that involve traversing worlds or stopping time:
To prevent Stand users—whose main bodies still possess normal human physical fitness—from killing themselves upon using their Stand ability due to losing the four fundamental forces during the process of world-traversing or time-stopping (meaning the basic particles constituting their bodies could no longer be held together by the four fundamental forces), the abilities themselves are bound by physics.
Therefore, [D4C: Love Train], a Stand ability that can block all attacks and misfortune from approaching the Stand user, cannot stop the approach of the four fundamental forces.
The [The World] Stand ability of stopping time also cannot stop the time of the four fundamental forces.
Similarly, as a massive celestial body that can attract humans to the Earth, the Earth could not truly be stopped by [Pseudo-The World]. At the very least, the influence of this gravity always exists.
At the moment Shirou Emiya was about to leave the magic circle, the moment the time stopped by [Pseudo-The World] was about to reach its end:
It expanded violently.
It began to erupt with a massive amount of magic power, instantly enveloping Saber—who had been frozen by the time stop—and Shirou Emiya, who clearly felt something was wrong, in that magic power before they could have any reaction!
The unfolding magic circle started immediately!
"...!?"
Boom!!!
—Two seconds passed.
Time began to flow again.
But in this Central Cavity of Mount Enzou:
Aside from the Greater Grail, which was slowly stopping its operation and had lost all its magic power:
One could no longer see the existence of anyone else.
Whether it was Saber, who had made the wish to leave, or Shirou Emiya...
Their figures had disappeared from this parallel world...
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